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Trash star 11 EP

HD 68278

RA 122.2188° · Dec -55.4351° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
11 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Star +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
Total score 11

4 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F5IV/V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a subgiant, caught in the act of leaving the main sequence as the hydrogen in its core runs out.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Far away by human standards, yet still a local address inside the Milky Way's spiral arms.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 8.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Carina.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around January — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 11.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
2.12
bv
0.434
constellation
Car
dist ly
662.9186
luminosity
12.3595
mag
8.66
name
HD 68278
spect
F5IV/V

Nearby objects

About HD 68278

HD 68278 is a trash star. It lies about 662.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Car, shines at apparent magnitude 8.66 and has spectral type F5IV/V.

Its spectrum reads F5IV/V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 68278 in the constellation Car. At apparent magnitude 8.66, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 68278 is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.

Why HD 68278 is a trash star

HD 68278 scores 11 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Yellow-white F-type star and Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.